by T. S. Joyce
Skyler squared her shoulders and glared. “I’m happy now. Happiness changes a lot about a person.”
“I can see that.” His empty eyes dragged to her tight jeans then back to her face. He didn’t look amused that she’d worn clothes he would’ve thrown into the street. “You haven’t been picking up your phone.”
“I turned it off. I don’t have any interest in talking to you. I said what I had to say. We’re finished.”
The cashier was a heavyset woman with gray, frizzy hair and a disapproving grimace. She looked decidedly uncomfortable with what was transpiring.
“Excuse us,” Roger said to the woman.
He wrenched Skyler’s arm so fast she squeaked in surprised pain. With an unbreakable grip, he dragged her outside.
“The fuck you say to me? We’re over? That’s not your call to make.”
Fear clogged her throat, but she had to be strong now. She wasn’t just some breeder with a pretty name anymore. She was part of the Ashe crew, chosen mate to a strong and good man. She was a lumberjack, a wage earner. She was a laugher, a joker, a lover, a friend. She was so much more than the nothing he’d tried to turn her into. Gritting her teeth to bolster her confidence, she pulled his credit cards from her wallet and tried to hand them to him with a prim tilt to her chin. “Take these back. I don’t need them. I guess I never really did.”
A cruel smile stretched his thin lips, and he wrapped his hand around her throat and pushed her backward into a thin alleyway. Her boots dragged the asphalt as she struggled against his grip, but Roger was too strong. He slammed her against the brick wall of the store as she scrabbled with desperate fingers to loosen his steely grasp on her neck.
When she struggled to draw breath, choking sounds wrenched from deep within her.
“I thought I made myself clear on the phone that this isn’t through. You’re still mine.”
“Think again, dickface,” Kellen said casually from his position leaning against the wall. “Do your dumb ass a favor before you embarrass yourself further and check her neck. Go on, I’ll wait. Though, if you don’t remove your hands from my mate’s throat, I’m going to rip your intestines out through your trachea.”
The hard steel in Kellen’s voice said he wasn’t bluffing. Maybe he really would do that. Skyler wouldn’t put it past his bear.
Roger glared at her mate, but his grip loosened. Probably a smart move since Kellen had six inches on him and a fucking grizzly bear living inside of him.
She helped the idiot out and turned her head so he could see Kellen’s claiming mark.
“What does that mean?” Fury infused Roger’s words. “What the fuck have you done?”
“I got myself claimed by a real man.” She had to force the words past her aching windpipe, but her voice had stopped shaking, so there was that. “He even gave me a gold necklace.”
Roger’s eyes turned livid as they landed on her songbird charm. Crimson crept up his neck. “You stupid bitch! You were supposed to be mine! I chose you. I won you. Your father promised you to me.” He lifted his open palm and drew it back.
Kellen was there in a blur. One second, he was leaning against the building, and the next he was gripping Roger’s hand, stopping him from the open palm slap across her face he’d intended.
“My alpha forbade me to kill you, you sorry sonofabitch, and that is the only reason you are drawing a breath right now. Listen to me. Let this sink in. You’ll let her go because you have no choice. I would fucking eat you before I let you near her again. You hurt a woman, which means you are not a man. How did you ever expect to keep a woman like Skyler if you can’t even treat her with respect?” Kellen’s grip tightened on his extended arm, and Roger yelped in pain. “You are a worthless sack of shit, not worthy of breathing the same air as my mate. Approach either of us again, and you’ll regret that decision.”
He let go of Roger’s wrist and shoved him so hard Roger’s back smashed into the brick wall of the next building.
Skyler rubbed her neck and tossed his credit cards to the ground. “See you when I see you, Roger.” Without a backward glance, she followed her future from the dusty alleyway and left her past behind.
Chapter Thirteen
“Werewombat,” Denison guessed.
“Nope,” Skyler muttered as she hopped onto another log.
“Werechicken,” he guessed again.
“Nope,” she answered.
Haydan pulled on a loop of cable to test the strength before he hooked it to a log and propped his leg up on a felled tree. “What if the reason she hasn’t changed is because she can’t breathe air like the rest of us?”
Denison scrunched up his face and looked at him like he was a dumbass. “What the hell does that even mean?”
Haydan lifted his dark eyebrows and guessed, “Weregoldfish.”
Denison perked up and stared expectantly at Skyler.
“Nope,” she muttered again.
Kellen shook his head and snatched another loop of cable from Haydan. The boys had been dicking around all morning trying to figure his mate out, and so far hadn’t managed to even get close. Skyler scaled the log he was eyeing and stood on the other side, then helped guide the cable around and handed it back to Kellen.
She was good. Really good. Efficient at her job, hardworking, caught on fast, never complained, and was the first one out there and loaded up in the truck every morning. Her capability still hadn’t stopped his bear from revolting every time he sat up in the machinery above and toted thousands of pounds of lumber much too close to his mate. He’d put in a request to Tagan a week ago to work with the rest of the crew doing the manual labor down on the hillside. Now his alpha ran the cables that dragged the lumber up to the landing, and Brighton was still running the processor after Connor had been killed. And when they needed a bobcat to drag the clean logs to the truck to haul them into town, well, Drew had stepped up, leaving Denison, Bruiser, Haydan, himself, and Skyler to work the mountainside, unless someone had a day off. Today, everyone was at the job site, even Brooke, who was drawing on a sketchpad from the safest place Tagan could find above the landing.
Kellen’s bear had settled with the new routine, and if he was honest, he enjoyed the physical part of this job. He’d forgotten how strenuous and consuming it was. And damn did he sleep well at night now. Though he couldn’t tell if that was from the hard work, scaling the hillside and lifting all day, or from fulfilling his mate’s needs in their bedroom.
The thought of her joining him in the shower this morning, and him slipping into her under the hot jets of water was enough to bring a contented rumble to his throat.
As Denison went down a list of were-farm-animals, Kellen had to bite his cheek to stop from cuffing his friend upside the head. It was getting old, and Skyler had stopped smiling about it early this morning. She hadn’t Changed since she’d arrived three weeks ago, as far as he knew. Now, he could go a while without turning into his bear if he absolutely needed to, but it was uncomfortable to stay in one form too long. From the way Skyler had been cocking her head this way and that in jerky motions, it was clear just thinking about her animal was wrenching up her level of discomfort.
Why wouldn’t she just Change?
It couldn’t be the game. Sure, it was funny as hell watching Denison slowly sink into madness trying to figure her out. The rest of the crew, too. They’d been pestering him and Tagan non-stop trying to get them to spill the details of Skyler’s animal. But if she was hell-bent on keeping it to herself for now, he and Tagan would respect that.
With the trio of logs looped with cable, the crew made their way toward the tree line, well out of the way of the skyline cable above them. When they were all clear, Kellen pulled a handheld whistle from his pocket and blasted it twice, signaling to his alpha it was safe to bring down the line. Tagan sent down a box with three heavy dangling metal cords to attach to the cable loops on the logs.
Another whistle blew in the distance, and Kellen narrowed his eyes
at the sound. The Gray Backs were the other crew in these mountains, and for whatever reason, the head boss who owned this land had placed their current job sites too close. Bear shifter crews were territorial for one, but for two, if they came any closer, Tagan wouldn’t be able to tell between his whistle and theirs, and it would be dangerous if those heavy cables came flying down the mountain with them still working on the hillside.
Chop, chop, chop. Kellen scented the air and frowned at the sound that shouldn’t have been in their territory. The rest of the Ashe crew went silent, too. The discord echoed over the mountain. It could be on the edge of the jobsite or a mile away. It was hard to tell.
“Is that the Gray Backs?” Bruiser asked, resting his hands on a lowlying pine tree limb above his head.
“Shouldn’t be the Boarlanders,” Kellen murmured. The crew of cutters had already felled all the trees for both job sites and wouldn’t be on this side of the mountain working their chainsaws today. “I think you’re right. It must be the Gray Backs.”
Skyler was looking up at the sky in silence, unblinking.
Kellen touched her cheek. “Come back to earth, Beautiful. It’s okay. Probably just the Gray Backs taking down a missed tree or re-running their skyline. It happens.”
Skyler made an attempt to smile and dipped her chin. Another jerk of her head as she angled her face, and he was hurting for her. He wished she would just Change. She had her reasons for keeping her animal hidden, though, and she had shut down any conversation he’d started about Turning. He’d Changed into his bear three times this week, and twice she’d come into the woods with him, following silently as he foraged, explored, and fished in the stream, as if she just wanted to be near him whether he was animal or man. He loved her for her unconditional acceptance, but she wasn’t giving him anything in return with her animal side.
Maybe she didn’t trust him completely yet, or perhaps her people didn’t need to Change as much. Or maybe it hurt to let her animal out, and that’s why she was putting it off.
Whatever the hold-up was, he wished with everything he had she would share that part of herself with him. She was open with everything else but that.
The chopping continued, the sound ricocheting off the mountains, but Kellen lifted his mate’s hand and kissed the knuckles of her work gloves. “Come on,” he ordered the crew. “The cables are ready, and we have a deadline to keep.”
In a rush, they stepped, jumped, and ran over the piles of fallen logs. Most of the trees here were dead from the beetle infestation, which is why the man who owned this land had hired the two crews to clear it. They were replanting as they went, hoping for new forest to spring up. As it was now, all of the dry, dead timber was basically a matchbox waiting for someone to throw a cigarette out a car window and light this place to bloody blazes.
Kellen grabbed the first dangling cable that hung from the skyline above them and hooked it to the loop they’d attached to the log earlier. Skyler and Haydan worked on the second log while Denison worked the third. Bruiser was already preparing loops for the next set of logs to haul when the chopping became louder and the skyline lurched dangerously.
Tagan yelled something Kellen couldn’t understand from the landing above, and when he looked up, his alpha and Brighton were running toward the tree the skyline was attached to.
The towering tree was falling, taking the line with it, and it had nowhere to go but down the mountainside. It would take other trees with it, creating an avalanche of lumber.
“Get out of the way!” he yelled, pointing to the tree line.
“It’s a distraction,” Skyler murmured.
Time slowed as he watched her terror-filled eyes shift from the falling logs barreling toward them to the sky. Behind her, the men were running for safety, but she hadn’t moved.
“Skyler, run!” Kellen yelled, too far away from her.
Horror widened her eyes as her gaze locked on something above him. Her jaw clenched as she bent her knees, bunching her muscles. With an explosion of power, a falcon exploded from her, and she shot straight toward him, wings tucked, with an avian battle cry in her throat.
No, not straight for him. She was aimed just above him. When he turned his face upward, a pair of lethal looking talons were catapulting down on him, straight for his eyes.
A blast of feathers burst from the attacker as Skyler hit him side-on. The giant birds fell to the ground as another screech blasted from her throat.
Roger. The bigger falcon was slashing with his nails and beating his powerful wings, but Skyler was holding her own, and the feathers on his chest were turning red.
The crashing sound of the trees tumbling toward them was deafening, and just as Skyler disengaged, Roger beat his wings and lifted into the air.
Something was wrong. Skyler was flapping furiously but wasn’t getting anywhere. Her wings must have been injured. Kellen squinted at her. Beautiful gold and cream feathers, blazing green eyes riveted on her enemy, curved blood-soaked beak that sharpened down to a dagger-like point. Black talons stretched out as if she was waiting for Roger to attack again. She was beautiful. But her wings…they didn’t look like Roger’s. Her biggest feathers had been damaged somehow, and she was unable to fly.
“Skyler,” Kellen yelled, running for her. He had to protect her from the tree-slide if she couldn’t escape with flight.
Roger passed him with his wings tucked, and at the last moment, he spread them wide and latched his talons onto Skyler’s.
“No!” Kellen pumped his legs over the piled lumber and reached for her, but it was too late.
Roger thrashed his wings above Kellen’s reach, dragging Skyler higher and higher toward the dark clouds above.
Her green eyes locked on Kellen’s, and she looked so sad, so scared.
“Fuck!” he screamed, gripping his hair.
The first falling tree sailed over him. Kellen ducked out of the way of the second and third. The crew was yelling in the background, but he couldn’t understand what they said. He couldn’t understand anything. His bear was roaring to get out of him, but he had to hold onto his human side for a while more. He had to survive this slide so he could try and save his mate. His focus was rattled, and he jumped over a falling log, only to be drummed in the head and shoulder by a thinner one. Pain zinged down his body and warmth trickled down his face as he ran toward the tree line at a break in the avalanching lumber.
“What do we do?” Denison asked as soon as he was out of the way.
“She can’t fly!” Kellen rasped out, panicked. “Her wings are messed up.”
Denison’s gaze jerked skyward. “Oh, my God.”
“Spread out and catch her,” Kellen ordered.
Bruiser was already relaying the message into a walkie-talkie to Tagan up on the landing, but Denison pointed to the sky. “There she is.”
Roger and Skyler had just hit the clouds, and although their forms were faint, they were visible.
Kellen took off, his grizzly bursting from him in a blindingly painful moment of fur and teeth and claws cutting through his flesh. He was quick as a man, but he was much faster as an animal.
Behind him, he could hear the panting of his crew as they Changed and followed him. When they reached the middle of the cleared lane, the bears behind him spread out.
Kellen watched the sky. Please don’t let him drop her somewhere else.
Down to his marrow, Kellen knew he wouldn’t. Roger would drop her where Kellen could watch her die. It was a coward’s revenge, and Roger was as spineless as they came.
Kellen huffed a breath as he saw something fall through the clouds. Skyler was flapping her wings uselessly, trying to slow herself down.
Hold on, beautiful.
She was too far ahead, would land at the other end of the jobsite. The distance was too great. Fear pulsed through his blood, dumping adrenaline into him and urging his legs to pump faster. He dug his claws in and pushed his muscles until he was as close to flying as a bear could get.
>
She was in a free fall, spinning uncontrollably as she tried to catch the wind with her damaged wings. A cry burst from her throat as she approached the tops of the trees.
Almost there. Almost.
As she blasted toward the ground in front of him, he leapt through the air and stretched his paws as far as he could, then tucked around her at the last moment. He skidded across the blanket of pine needles and slammed into the trunk of a towering spruce.
Afraid to look, he stared at the clouds she’d fallen from, panting so hard his chest burned. Slowly, he opened his claws and looked down at the bird of prey that lay across his chest.
Skyler’s eyes were closed.
No.
Kellen’s breath caught as he sat up and cradled her. Grunts of snarling agony clawed up his throat as he stroked the back of his paw down her chin to the top of her neck, like he’d done the first day he’d met her on that bench outside the grocery store. His fierce little falcon had saved his eyes from Roger’s talons. His shifter healing could do wonders, but regrowing body parts was beyond him. Roger had meant to take his sight, and Skyler had attacked him with single-minded fearlessness. His strong mate. His Skyler.
Her eyes fluttered open, and the feathers on her breast fluffed as she struggled to sit up. Whatever had happened to her wings had destroyed her sense of balance. Kellen closed his eyes, and as relief washed over him, he melted back into his human skin. With a heaving sigh, he pressed his arm under her talons and she latched on. Her blade-sharp nails drew tiny streams of crimson from his skin where they pierced him. He didn’t care about the pain. She couldn’t help that her body was all weapons.
The Ashe crew appeared through the trees, transforming from their bears back into their human skins.
“You’re a falcon,” Denison said softly.
Skyler’s sharp beak was open as she panted, her feathers ruffling with each breath. Kellen didn’t know much about birds, or what kind of falcon she was, but she was likely much larger than any found in the wild. She was heavy on his arm and her talons were easily two inches long. His mate could do some serious damage in a fight. Roger had flown away colored in red, but as Kellen searched Skyler’s body, he couldn’t find a single cut.
